Completely Professional Transcription

Professional transcription is transcription produced to a professional standard - human-typed, proofread against the audio and formatted properly. The work is produced by people and not by software, and what shapes it here is audio, video and document material in almost any format, including legacy media, so the deliverable fits how you actually work instead of a generic template. Every file is checked by a second reviewer before it is sent.

Mostly organisations that cannot send out a transcript with guessed words in it. What they have in common is material that has to be exact and not roughly right, which is why every file is checked against the source before delivery. A lot of the work arrives from archives, estates and institutions digitising what they hold.

The practical part is this: every file is checked by a second person against the recording before delivery. It is agreed with you before anyone starts, because the alternative is a first delivery built on a guess and a second round of work to undo it. Anything on physical media is digitised first, logged, and then worked from the digital copy.

Worth asking for: subject-matter transcribers are assigned by field rather than whoever is free. It is easier to set at order stage than to retrofit, and it costs nothing on top of the quoted rate when it is part of the original brief. A digital master of the source can be returned alongside the finished file where the original is fragile.

Yes, in 100+ languages, each handled by a native speaker and not by someone working from a dictionary. What professional transcription involves does not change with the language, and the same independent check happens before delivery. Older recordings often mix languages, and each one is kept as it was spoken instead of flattened into one.

General transcription starts at $1 per audio minute and legal transcription at $2. Professional transcription is quoted from the material you send, so a short job and a long one are worked out the same way. The source format makes no difference to the rate; digitising legacy media appears as its own line in the quote. Quotes are calculated from how long the recording runs, how clear the audio is and how many people are speaking, so two clients sending comparable material pay the same, and nothing begins until you approve the written total.

The date is fixed in the quote, and rush delivery within 2 to 24 hours is available where you need it. Professional transcription is scheduled against the people who actually do this work, not against a general pool. Legacy media such as tape, MiniDV, DAT or optical disc adds a digitising step, and that is quoted and scheduled up front.

The standard is 99+%, reached by doing the job twice: one person produces the file, a second checks it against the source. What gets checked on professional transcription is the detail a reader would otherwise have to verify themselves: names, figures, terms and anything the source left ambiguous. Degraded tape and low-bitrate audio go to people used to that loss, not to software that fills the gaps with guesses.

Yes. Everyone who touches your material signs an NDA, transfer is encrypted, and access is limited to the people assigned to the job, usually one transcriber and one reviewer. Professional transcription often involves material people would not want circulated, so the file is closed to everyone except the pair working on it. Archive material is often the only copy in existence, so originals are logged, restricted and returned. Your own agreement can be signed before the first file is sent.

In the format your workflow already uses, with real styles and structure instead of flat text, so the file drops into your records without reformatting. Source material in almost any audio, video or document format is accepted, including formats most suppliers turn away. The format for professional transcription is agreed at order stage, so the first delivery is the one you can file, send on or publish.